


Friend Killer Sakura

by ThroughtheMirrorDarkly



Category: Naruto
Genre: Anbu Haruno Sakura, BAMF Haruno Sakura, BAMF Tsunade (Naruto), Character Death, Depressing, Don't Post To Another Site, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, Hatake Kakashi is a Good Teacher, Implied Shady Politics, Strong Haruno Sakura, Violence, Weasel Mask
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 22:14:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20478314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThroughtheMirrorDarkly/pseuds/ThroughtheMirrorDarkly
Summary: The whispers follow her, the title Friend-Killer Sakura that follows her every waking moment. Rumors and stories ran amok, but the truth was simple. Sasuke came at her with the intent to kill, and Sakura paid him back in kind.





	Friend Killer Sakura

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing from Naruto. This is purely to challenge myself as a writer, and nothing more.  
Summary: The whispers follow her, the title Friend-Killer Sakura that follows her every waking moment. Rumors and stories ran amok, but the truth was simple. Sasuke came at her with the intent to kill, and Sakura paid him back in kind.
> 
> Writing Prompt: She stared at her blood stained hands and backed away from the body. "I'm sorry," she said, with tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry!"

Friend-Killer Sakura 

By ThroughtheMirrorDarkly 

* * *

The whispers followed her like a stain, like a blight on her every waking moment. A title earned and paid for in blood, Friend-Killer Sakura. The truth had stretch and embellished, until civilians traded several different stories and theories about the pink haired girl that put an killed a Clan Heir. It didn’t matter what the story told was, the disdain and fear was plainly written in all the faces Haruno Sakura encountered. Oh, some tried to hide it behind shaky smiles and polite words, but the second her back was turned, all pretense was dropped. 

It was the anniversary of that terrible night. A year had come and gone, and Kohonagakure did not welcome her as it once used to it. She used to feel so safe in these walls, untouchable and strong. The aftermath of that night had proven her wrong, showed her the ugly underbelly of the village and the poisonous roots that sicken all that they touched. 

_She just needed to buy time. She just needed some way to keep Sasuke occupied, until someone arrived—someone who was capable of physically stopping him. Her heart thumped wildly at the base of her throat, and her pupils were the size of pinpoints. “Sa—Sasuke, I—” She spoke, her mouth felt cotton dry. “Please, don’t leave!”_

_He levelled a dark glower at her. “Get out of my way, Sakura.”_

_“No, Sasuke!” Sakura said, breathlessly. “Please…”_

_Sasuke lunged forward, a glint of metal in his hand. The blade poised to come straight at her throat…_

Sakura raced across the rooftops at a lightning fast pace, blink and she was gone. The wind roared past her ears and the scent of spring was in the air, filled with fresh hopes and new dreams. Her heart ached for simpler times. The genin days when Team Seven was together, and the future seemed so bright. Where Naruto didn’t hate her guts and Sasuke was still breathing… 

There had been a time when Sakura thought Sasuke was the love of her life. It had been naïve and childish crush that she outgrown by the time the Chunin Exams had come around. There was only so long warm and fuzzy feelings would stay strong underneath withering indifferent and sneers. No matter how much she tried to conform to what she had stupidly believed would be the girl that would win his heart. She compromised her own growth as a shinobi to please a boy that would never see her more than an annoyance. 

That didn’t mean she hated him. It would be easier if she could have hated Sasuke. The guilt and pain that permeated from the marrow of her bones wouldn’t be so strong; she might have been able to get through the day without her thoughts dragging her back to that night. But she couldn’t outrun the blood stains imprinted on her memory, and dark lifeless eyes that peered up at her through the hazy gloom of night. 

She dropped into the clearing, a peaceful meadow surrounding her on all sides. Kakashi-Sensei and Yamato-senpai were already there, dressed in the standard ANBU uniform. Yamato had a cat-like symmetrical mask, that seemed neutral and the paint more understated than most ANBU masks. Kakashi had a mask that was some type of a canine—a wolf or a dog, and the sharp design and placement of paint made it looked intimidating. He was not called, Inu-taichou for nothing. 

The porcelain mask tied at her hip was a weight. It was a burden and responsibility that she never expected to have foisted upon, but her options had been few and far in-between when news spread of her actions. The girl who had put her village and its safety above her team and made the hard decision to strike down the traitor. That’s what the Council had said while giving the eerie smiles full of secrets and darkness that made her mind prickle uneasily. 

The Fifth Hokage had taken her underneath her wing, a shield from those that would twist her into a mindless weapon. Her chakra control was the driving force behind her growth as it was her key strength which all others stemmed from. Her taijustu which had been abysmal in the beginning, was now deadly and precise. Her ninjutsu mostly consisted of earth and water based attacks, which are primarily defensive by nature. She had been taught to take those defenses and make them deadly. 

Her actions that night had set her up for a career as an assassin and pinned her for ANBU status in one fell swoop. There had been no other choice for her. It was do or die. _It had been instinct. She hadn’t intentionally used the jutsu. She hadn’t even perfected it, but the malformed rocky spikes jutted out of the earth between her and Sasuke._

_A trickle of blood leaked out of the corner of his mouth. He brokenly whispered her name, dark eyes widened in his shock and the kunai fell to the ground with a clatter. One of the spikes pierced through his chest, and blood split like a red waterfall. She had been rooted to the spot unable to do anything, but watch the macabre scene with darkness encroaching upon her vision._

_His body suddenly went limp, and the light died in his eyes._

_She stared at her hands as she backed away from his body. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, silent tears running down her cheek. Her knees knocked together while her lungs were still breathing, her heart seemed to have come to a screeching halt. The village seemed disappear all around her, and her entire world narrowed focus on the puddle of red pooling around his body. “I’m so sorry!”_

She brushed her hair out of her face, her fingertips glanced across the scar that ran down the length of her cheek bone to her jaw. The image of red eyes and blond hair appeared in her mind’s eyes, and she felt bile bubbled up the length of her throat. When Naruto had learned of Sasuke’s death, he had lost control of the Kyuubi. He would have killed her if it hadn’t been for Jiraya and Tsunade. She was unsurprised by his rage. Naruto was always more of Sasuke’s friend than hers. 

Jiraya took Naruto out of the village for specialized training. The incident was swept underneath the rug, and Sakura was healed the best that she could. There was so much that the healers could do against the Kyuubi’s chakra. She had woken in the worst kind of pain, with Kakashi-sensei by her bed side with his signature orange book in his hands. He had not offered her any empty words and brought her scrolls from the library. It was an olive branch, both silently acknowledge that they hadn’t been the best student or best teachers but promised to do better. 

Kakashi-sensei had become her guardian after her parents kicked her out. They hadn’t wanted a dangerous shinobi living underneath their roof, and with all the shadows in the village, it would be unsafe for her to live alone. And Yamato-senpai had been the mother hen to keep an eye on them, in order to keep them from getting in too much trouble. 

Rookie Nine had been irrevocably change that night. The line drawn in the sand and all of them had split on different sides. The tentative friendship she had rekindled with Ino had been snuffed out in the blink of eye, and Shikamaru and Choji while neutral didn’t speak to her too much not to fear the blond. Hinata was probably the closest thing she had to a friend around her age. Shino was unjudgmental and would hold intellectual conversations with her when given the time. Kiba wasn’t too bad, just a little too rowdy for her taste. At least, he treated her like she was still human. 

_Thud._

Sakura blinked, then peered up through the curtain of her hair at the book that had tapped against her forehead. She looked passed the book and saw silver hair haloed by the afternoon sun. “Something you need, sensei?” 

“Maa, I’m all good, Sakura,” Kakashi said, with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulder. He removed the book from her forehead and stared down at her with an eye smile. “Just don’t get so lost in your head. Head of people running in circles when that happens.” 

A faint smile crossed her lips, but it faltered. She did get lost in her thoughts and regrets. It was hard not to when they had a hand in creating the person she was today. Her green eyes stared out across the peaceful meadow while a storm raged in her heart. “Does it ever get easier, sensei?” Sakura asked, quietly. The wind stirred and played with strands of her pink hair, and she could feel the weight of Kakashi-sensei’s stare on the back of her skull. “Does it ever get easier to know that people will look you in the face with a smile, and then call you ‘Friend-Killer’ behind your back? That no matter what you do, people will always hate you?” 

“No, it doesn’t,” Kakashi admitted, quietly. “I just learned how to grow a thicker skin, so the words couldn’t dig in so deep. You will learn how to do it, too.” 

Sakura swallowed and gave a shallow nod. She unclipped the porcelain mask from her waist. It had been chosen by the Council. A last jab and mockery when they couldn’t dictate her future. She secured the mask to her face and straightened her posture. 

“Weasel, reporting in, taichou.”

**Author's Note:**

> * * *
> 
> Soundtrack:  
“Bad Dreams” by Faouzia  
“Snuff” by Christina Rotondo & Jess Woess (Slipknot Cover)  
“Fight For You” by Hidden Citizens (ft. Alaina Cross)


End file.
